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The Macao SAR Government has invested a significant amount of resources into diversifying the local economy with the goal of fostering the development of emerging industries, including the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) sector.
With increasingly closer ties with neighbouring Guangdong province, as well as the advantages of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and the Technology Industrial Park of Co-operation Between Guangdong and Macao (Industrial Park), the local TCM industry offers many new opportunities for development. In addition to giving room for the growth of local talent, the industry also makes good use of Macao’s unique advantages to help local companies venture abroad.
In line with national development
“We are stationed in Macao to serve the Greater Bay Area, and value the importance of Portuguese-speaking Countries.” Wang Chunming, Associate Professor and Programme Director (Teaching/Research) at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences at the University of Macau
The governments of Guangdong and Macao signed the Framework Agreement on Co-operation between Guangdong and Macao in 2011, which covers a number of key areas including the implementation of the Industrial Park on Hengqin New Area.
Spanning an area of 500,000 square metres, the project aims to facilitate the moderate diversification of Macao’s economy and the internationalisation of TCM. The Industrial Park is established, operated and managed by Guangdong–Macao Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development Co Ltd., a venture jointly set up by the administrations of both sides.
Through years of development, the Industrial Park’s software and hardware facilities have gradually been put into place, playing a greater role in the development of the Macao TCM industry.
In a written response to queries from Macao Image, Industrial Park Development Co Ltd. explained that the State’s leaders have visited the Industrial Park regularly over the years as a sign of support from the Central Government to Macao’s establishment of a TCM development platform. The Industrial Park is also an important stepping stone for the Macao SAR Government to pursue moderate economic diversification and to integrate with national development, the company said.
According to the company, the public service platform of the Industrial Park started operations in September 2017, providing research and development headquarters; a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) pilot scale production building; an inspection building and other facilities. There are also world-class manufacturing facilities in the public service platform, allowing the Industrial Park to provide GMP-standard TCM product processing and manufacturing services for other companies.
The operator of the Industrial Park also said the incubation area of the project is close to completion, offering a leasing area of nearly 100,000 square metres that could accommodate 300 to 400 TCM companies of different sizes and scale while also offering office facilities and environment for growth.
By the end of September 2018, 99 companies had registered in the Industrial Park and 25 of them were Macao companies, engaging in the areas of traditional Chinese medicine, healthcare products, medical equipment and medical services.
The Industrial Park Development Co Ltd. said it can help Macao TCM companies develop new products, improve their skills and practices, enhance their quality standards and expand their markets through its research and development platform. As an example, it is now helping two Macao companies to develop three new products and one Macao firm to upgrade and improve its existing product.
Promoting TCM overseas
Aside from supporting the development of companies, the Industrial Park has also put significant effort into nurturing the growth of Macao talent. The company said the Industrial Park has arranged for Macao TCM professionals to participate in a variety of professional trainings, clinical trainings and overseas volunteer medical consultations since 2016, in order to gradually enhance the quality of young TCM talent. To date, the Industrial Park has organised young Macao TCM practitioners to carry out three volunteer medical consultation sessions in Mozambique and Thailand.
The Industrial Park has also fully leveraged the platform role of Macao, helping companies to introduce their TCM products and technologies to Portuguese-speaking Countries, European Union member countries and nations along the Belt and Road through Macao. So far, it has successfully helped Macao and Mainland companies to register two of their TCM products in Mozambique with the approvals needed to sell them in Mozambique.
The Industrial Park aims to facilitate the moderate diversification of Macao’s economy and the internationalisation of traditional Chinese medicine
Industrial Park Development Co Ltd. added that it has organised 10 TCM professional training programmes for representatives from Portuguese-speaking Countries, including doctors and physiotherapists from the Mozambican Ministry of Health. The programmes have trained 209 Mozambican health professionals, who work in 43 public healthcare facilities across 11 provinces in Mozambique, successfully introducing TCM into the Mozambican public health system for the first time. More than 7,000 patients in Mozambique have been treated with TCM therapies, the company added.
Nurturing talent for the Greater Bay Area
The initiatives undertaken by Macao to facilitate the development of the TCM industry go well beyond the Industrial Park. Through the support of the SAR Government, the University of Macao set up the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences in 2002. Under the support of the Central Government, the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine was officially set up in the University of Macau and the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) in 2011, in order to advance the research development of TCM.
In addition, the University of Macau, the Hong Kong Baptist University, and the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine also established collaboratively, on 16 August 2018, an innovation centre for Chinese medical sciences for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is a project affiliated with the International Co-operation Department of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine to co-develop a laboratory for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao under the Ministry of Education, with the aim to promote the use of TCM in prevention and treatment of illness through academic research, industrial transformation and clinical application.
Wang Chunming, Associate Professor and Programme Director (Teaching/Research) at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences at the University of Macau, stresses the Institute focuses on converging the key areas of modern biomedicine and TCM, as well as the cultivation of local talent for the economic diversification of Macao.
Many master’s and doctoral graduates of the Institute have served in key positions at local and overseas universities and research institutions, and have served the public in government departments, he told Macao Image.
Through years of development, Professor Wang revealed that the State Key Laboratory at the University of Macau now has 33 full-time professors (assistant professors or above); three scholars under the university’s Macao Fellow Programme; 50 research associates and approximately 300 post-graduates focusing on studies across different areas of traditional Chinese medicine.
The laboratory also has five key platforms – research centres on efficiency, safety, stability, controllable and clinical aspects of Chinese medicines – to carry out in-depth studies to overcome the challenges in TCM research and facilitate the development of the Macao TCM industry, he said. The team at the State Key Laboratory has published nearly 1,800 articles in Science Citation.
The public service platform of the Industrial Park started operations in September 2017
Index journals with more than 25,000 citations, and has garnered a number of prestigious research and science awards both nationally and internationally, Professor Wang said.
Looking ahead, he said, based on current developments, the laboratory would transform the results of their studies into medical and healthcare products. With respect to talent cultivation, the university will make good use of the platform role of Macao to link TCM students from Macao, Mainland China, Portuguese-speaking Countries and countries along the Belt and Road together, he said.
“We are stationed in Macao to serve the Greater Bay Area, and value the importance of Portuguese-speaking Countries,” said Professor Wang.
The Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences at the University of Macau focuses on converging the key areas of modern biomedicine and TCM
